, 1887-09-20

consolation to the mother, who Thoughts
that her little Hanz would not be too un-
easy his first night in the tomb.
Back in her solitary house, she placed
the child's cradle next to her bed, lay
down and fell asleep. Exhausted nature
had succumbed.
Sleeping, she had a dream, or at least
she thought it was a dream. Hanz ap-
peared to her, dressed, as in his coffin, in
his Sunday clothing, his pelsse trimmed
with swansdown, holding in his arms the
doll with the enameled eyes, and wear
ing on his feet the shoes made of bread.
He seemed var Around his head was
not that aureole with which death should
rightly crown little innocents; for when
a baby is put in the earth there comes out
an angel. The roses of paradise did not
bloom on his pale cheeks that death had
painted SO white; tears fell from his
blonde lashes, and big signs rent his little
breast. The vision disappeared and the
mother awoke, cold and shivering, over
joyed to have seen her son again, dis
tressed because he was 30 sad; but she
treasured herself, saying: Poor Hanzl
even in Paradise he cannot forget me-"
TIT following night the apparition
came one more. Hanz was still more
sad, still more pale. His mother,
stretching out her arms to him, said:
''Dear child, console thySelf, and do not
become weary in heaven, / am going
there to join thee" The third night
Hanz came again; he groaned and cried
more than on the two preceding nights,
and he disappeared clasping his little
hands as if in supplication; he did not
carry his doll, but he wore, as always,
the tiny shoes made of bread.
The anxious mother went to consult a
venerable priest, who said to her: 81
will watch with you tonight and 1 will
swer me; 1 know the words that one
must use to innocent as well as to wicked
spirits"
Hanz appeared at the usual hour and
the priest challenged him, using the con-
secrated words, to tell him what it was
that tormented him in the other world.
= at is the shoes of bread that cause my
torment and prevent me from ascending
the diamond stairs of paradise; they are
heavier to my feet than a Positions
boots, and 1 cannot get beyond the first
two or three steps, and that gives me Sc
much grief, for l see up there a cloud
of beautiful cherubs with rosy wings
who call to me to come and play, and
who show me their silver toys nj their
G n toys"
having said these words, he vanished.
The holy father, to whom the mother of
Hanz had confessed, now said to her:
"You have committed a grievous
fault. You have profaned the daily
bread, the bread that is sacred, the bread
of the good God; the bread that Jesus
Christ, at his last supper, chose to repre-
sent his body, and after having refused a
piece of it to the beggar who came to
your doorsill you made shoes out of it for
your Hanz. You must open his coffin,
cake off the shoes made of bread from
this child's feet and burn them in fire,
which purifies ALL"
Accompanied by the grave digger and
by the mother, the priest went to the
cemetery. With four blows of the spade
the coffin was uncovered. They opened
it. Hanz was lying within just ds his
mother had placed him, but his face bore
an expression of grief. The holy priest
tenderly o off the shoes made of bread
from the feet of the lead baby and him
self burned them in the flame Of a wax
taper while he recited a prayer.
When the night came OIL Hanz ap-
peared before his mother for the last time,
but joyous, rosy, contented, with two
little cherubs with whom he had already
made friends; he wore a wreath of dia-
monds and his wings were made of Light.
"Oh, my motherl what happiness,
what felicity, and how beautiful. They
are the gardens of paradisel There we
play forever, and the good God never
scolds u.s."
The next day the mother saw her boy
again, but in heaven, for she died before
evening, with her head bent over the
empty adle.-Translated by Anne G.
Milford Barton from the French Of The
ophile Gautier for Home Journal.